Transactional God

I suppose I was a deist. Roughly speaking I believed that God had created the world like a great watchmaker.  He had established the rules and regulations for all things, including humans.  I believed that if I lived according to His rules and regulations, I could have the best life possible (the summum bonum).  This seemed to work well until I reached college age.  A hard break-up taught me differently. It appeared that “playing by the rules” didn’t work that well.  It was at this point I changed directions.  I decided to forget about the rules and go my own way.

Unfortunately, this didn’t work so well either.  My first year at the university was one of the darkest periods of my life.  I felt that life should offer more, but I couldn’t find it.

Now I must clarify a bit.  When I say I had been playing by the rules, that wasn’t strictly true.  I had some very basic rules to follow- don’t hurt anyone else, try to be truthful, do what is right, etc.  Not much of a code of conduct, is it?  Anyway, I came to a point where I no longer believed it mattered how I lived.  Boy was that wrong.

I guess I had believed in a “transactional God”.  IF I lived a certain way, God would order the events of life toward positive results. 

Many things in life appear transactional.  When we go to the ATM, put in the proper card and code we can get money out (IF there is any in there). IF we study hard enough, we typically get good grades.  If we are diligent at work, we get promotions.  IF we raise our children well, they turn out to be upstanding adults.

So, is our faith like this or not?  Do we have a transactional God?  Are His blessings dependent on our actions?  I think not.

Now wait a minute.  Think of the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.  There is so much advice about how to live. And so much truth found in these pages.  But biblical faith is much more than how to live.  True faith is about our relationship with God. And what do they say about that? 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Prov 1:7)

For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. Rather, fear God. (Eccl 5:7)

Of course the fear of the Lord is not a fearful dread but actually a deep sense of awe and reverence.  This must be at the foundation of our faith, not rules and regulations.   This type of fear motivates us on a deeply personal level to obey and submit to Him.  It’s not as superficial as rules and regulations.

Likewise, the love of God. If our faith is deeply motivated by fear and love, then we will be oblivious to transactions with God.  If we hold to a transactional God, we may be believers, but we are functional deists.  We are treating God as an impersonal being from whom we hope to get results. Imagine if we treated our spouses or children this way.  What if there was no real love, all we cared about were results.  But this is often the way we look at our Heavenly Father. 

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” (Jn 14:21)

One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?”

  29      Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord;

  30      and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’^[1] (Mk 12:28-30)

Of course, we are to keep His commandments, but so much more.  It’s about love, true love- loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Any less puts us in the realm of mere transactions.

We often hear exhortations to avoid a works orientation in our faith.  What I’m saying here is similar but different.  Classically in works, we are trying to please God by our human efforts.  What I see in our Christian culture is something different.  Many are not trying to please God, but rather to get something from Him.  You would have to start with a fear of God to desire to please.  Without the fear of God, there is no works orientation.  It’s not works, it’s simply a transaction.  This could explain why so many in our day are abandoning their faith.  Without a deep sense of fear and love, it’s easy to become disenchanted.  When our transactions don’t go as we expect, it’s time to move on.

Much more could be said on this topic, especially a consideration of the true nature of the love of God, but I will leave that to another time and to your personal study.

In the meantime, ask yourself, “Am I more of a Deist or a true Christian?”

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^[1] All passages in this post were taken from New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995).